Sunday, October 26, 2014

Reformation Day

Reformation Day
(Observed)

October 26, 2014

Text: Matt. 11:12-19

That
Martin Luther did not die a martyr’s death is remarkable considering he had a
bounty on his head for most of his life.
And why did so many want to kill him?
Because he preached the dangerous doctrine of justification by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works of the Law. That is to say, he preached, as did St. Paul,
and as did all the Apostles and Prophets, as did our Lord Jesus Himself, that a
man is accounted righteous before God, not by being good or doing good, but by
trusting that Jesus’ death and resurrection are for him. Your sins are forgiven because of Christ, not
because of you. And this is a matter of
eternal life and death. Those who don’t
believe that Christ’s death and resurrection are for them, for the forgiveness
of their sins, perish eternally in hell.
So this preaching necessarily means preaching against every false
doctrine opposed to it. And that makes
people mad. Luther preached against
every man-made method of salvation, methods that were attractive and lucrative
for the Church, methods that brought power and influence to the priestly
practitioners of the Roman system of satisfactions and indulgences. Luther was a threat. So he was told to recant, to renounce and
take back his preaching and his writings.
Pope Leo X called him a “drunken German” and issued a bull, a papal
decree, declaring him a heretic. He was
brought before the emperor, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire at the Diet of
Worms and once again told to recant. It
was here that he made his famous speech: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture
and plain reason… my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to
go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”[1] “Here I stand,” he is reported to have
said. “I can do no other. God help me.
Amen.” Were it not for Luther’s
own prince, Elector Frederick’s plan to kidnap him and hide him at Wartburg
Castle, Luther would undoubtedly have been burned at the stake for his faithful
confession. He did eventually return to
Wittenberg and to his pulpit, but for the rest of his life, Luther faced the
very real possibility that at any moment he could be arrested and killed. Faithful confession of Christ is perilous
business.

“From the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force”
(Matt. 11:12; ESV). The prophets and
apostles were martyred. The early
Christians suffered torture and death for refusing to renounce Christ. This morning as we gather together for the
Divine Service, faithful Christians around the world are suffering persecution
in the Name of Jesus. Beloved, do you
realize at this very moment there are people in this world who want to kill
you? For no other reason than that you
are baptized. For no other reason than
that you are sitting in the pew of a Christian Church. Why?
Why does it bother them so much?
Why does it enrage them to the point of hatred and murder? Because you won’t dance to the world’s
tune. The unbelieving world is happy
over many things that make you sad. The
world mourns over many things that make you rejoice. “We
played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did
not mourn” (v. 17), they say to you as they said to Jesus before you. Your confession of Christ calls upon the
world to repent, to mourn over living for the self, to grieve over rejection of
the one true God, over idolatry and rebellion.
You’re telling them they are sinners, that they stand condemned before
God, that only Jesus can save them. And
those are fighting words, my friend. Why
do they care what you believe about marriage?
Why are they so concerned that every Christian florist, baker,
photographer, and even clergyman support and participate in so-called “gay
marriage”? Because they can’t be wrong,
and therefore you can’t be right.
Because that would mean God is true and every man a liar (Rom. 3:4). That would mean that their man-made methods
of salvation, their conception of morality, their trust in their own goodness
and righteousness, their belief in their own self-determination and their
self-justification, these are all exercises in futility. This threatens their power and influence,
their wealth, and their control over their own lives and the lives of
others. And they simply cannot allow
this to stand. For the same reason,
according to this world’s mindset, Christians must pay for abortions.
Christian doctors must perform
abortions. And preachers must not preach against these things
from their pulpits (well, so much for that rule!). For we must obey God rather than men (Acts
5:29). We will speak of the Lord’s
testimonies before king’s and shall not be put to shame (Ps. 119:46). Whatever happens, happens. Though they fine us, subpoena our sermons as
they did in Houston recently, take away our tax exempt status, jail us, seize
our property, put us to death… “take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and
wife, Though these all be gone, Our vict’ry has been won; The Kingdom ours
remaineth” (LSB 656:4).

Because
there is a Judgment Day when everything will be turned on its head. Then all will know that Christ is King and
the devil is a liar. Then all will see
that that tyrants and persecutors of this world had no power beyond what the
Lord allowed. Then all will acknowledge
Christians for the royal sons and daughters we’ve been made in Christ, by His
blood and death, by His resurrection, by our Baptism into Christ. And then at the Name of Jesus every knee will
bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11). Things are not as they appear. Christ has conquered every enemy, including
sin, death, hell, and the prince of this world, the devil. You will see it in the end. In the meantime, we wait. And we confess. We confess Christ faithfully. We confess the biblical truth proclaimed by
John the Baptist and Martin Luther. And
we suffer. We bear it patiently because
the end is near. Jesus is coming to deliver
us.

Remember
what our Lord says: “For whoever would
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the
gospel's will save it” (Mark 8:35).
The Kingdom will be his. The
Kingdom will be yours. Because that is
what Jesus has done for you. He lost His
life to find yours. He suffered violence
and the violent took Him by force, arrested Him in the Garden of Gethsemane,
accused Him, slandered Him, spit on Him, beat Him, mocked Him, pierced His
sacred flesh, and compelled Him to carry His own cross to Calvary, there to be
nailed and lifted up for the sins of the whole world, for you. “Look at
him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend
of tax collectors and sinners,” they said (Matt. 11:19), and they were
right! For He took our gluttony and
drunkenness, our every sin upon Himself, and bore the guilt of it before His
Father, offering Himself as our sacrifice of atonement. He is a friend of tax collectors and sinners,
homosexuals and abortionists, liars and thieves, and pharisaical “good
Christian folk” like you and me. He lost
His life for your sake, that you might find your life in Him. In Christ, and in Christ alone, you have life
eternal and abundant.

So
the worst the world can do is kill you.
Your body, that is. Your soul
will be in heaven, with Jesus. They
can’t touch that. And on the Last Day,
He will raise you from the dead, in your body, to live with Him forever in a
new heaven and a new earth, where He rules, and there is no more suffering,
persecution, or pain. Maybe a little
suffering now, in this life, wouldn’t be such a bad thing for the Church. It would take away the distractions of
affluence and privilege. It would make
us less concerned about making the Church “fun” and more grateful that we
survived to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood another day. It would drive us to pray with the Church Militant
of every place and time: “Come, Lord Jesus.
Come quickly.” It would drive us
to keep our eyes on the Crucified, whose suffering sanctifies our own,
baptizing it in His blood. And maybe
we’d begin to be a little more concerned about our brothers and sisters
elsewhere in the world who are already suffering for the Name of Jesus. They are blessed. Their reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were
before them (Matt. 5:12). We’ll hear
that text again next week.

Whatever
happens, we’ll keep confessing Christ, for the Spirit of God will preserve us
in the one true faith. The Church will
keep confessing and the preachers will keep preaching. For our consciences are captive to the Word
of God. We won’t recant. We won’t take it back. We won’t deny Christ. We will speak the Truth of God before kings
and will not be put to shame. For to go
against conscience is neither right nor safe.
And to go against the Word of the LORD is deadly. So here we stand. We can do no other. And God will help us. He already does. For we belong to Him. We are covered in the blood of His Son. We are marked by the sign of His cross. His Name is written on us. No one and nothing can snatch us out of His
hands. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.